Fairfax County Public Schools, Office of Government Relations

Final Report - School Construction 

This report describes all School Construction related legislation considered during the 2024 General Assembly Regular and Special Sessions. Bills are listed as “Passed”, “Failed” or “Continued to 2025”.

Passed legislation will go into effect on July 1, 2024, unless otherwise specified in the legislation itself.

Bills identified as Continued to 2025 are no longer active for the 2024 Session but can be picked back up by the continuing committee where they were left off in the legislative process during the 2025 Session.  While possible, it is rare for a continued bill to be picked back up. Typically, such legislation is simply reintroduced in the next Session.

UPDATED: 05/29/2024

School Construction – Passed

Department of Energy; building standards for certain local buildings. HB 151 (Helmer) and SB 245 (McPike) require the Department of Energy, upon request, to provide technical assistance to localities, subject to available budgetary resources, as localities implement mandates related to onsite renewable energy generation, energy storage, and resilience standards for construction or renovation of certain public buildings. The bills also make several technical and clarifying changes to the existing statute, in part by defining or redefining existing terms found in the statute. 

Early childhood care and education; child day programs; use of office buildings; waiver of zoning requirements. HB 281 (Reaser) and SB 13 (Favola) permit any locality to by ordinance provide for the waiver of any requirements for zoning permits for the operation of a child day program in an office building, as defined by the bills, provided that such facility satisfies the requirements for state licensure as a child day program.

School Construction Program and Fund; career and technical education programs eligible. HB 462 (Runion) and SB 474 (Obenshain) clarify that, for the purposes of eligibility to receive grants through the School Construction Fund and Program, "local school division" includes any joint or regional school established in accordance with relevant law and "public school buildings and facilities" or "public school buildings" include any building or facility used for career and technical education programs provided at any such joint or regional school. 

Virginia Public Procurement Act; construction management and design-build contracting. HB 1108 (Carr) and SB 18 (Locke) require state public bodies, covered institutions, and local public bodies to provide documentation of the processes used for the final selection of a construction contract to all the unsuccessful applicants upon request. The bills add certain requirements for covered institutions, including posting all documents that are open to public inspection exchanged between the Department of General Services and the covered institution on the central electronic procurement website eVA. The bills require approval by a majority vote of the covered institution's board of visitors or governing board if the covered institution chooses to proceed with construction management or design-build against the recommendation of the Department for (i) projects funded by funds other than those provided from the state general fund or (ii) projects of $65 million or more funded in whole or in part from state general funds. For projects under $65 million funded in whole or in part by state general funds, the bills provide that the covered institution shall obtain approval from the Chairmen of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations, or their designees, and a representative of the Department.  The bills require a local public body to adopt a resolution or motion to use construction management or design-build, if required by its local governing body, prior to issuing a Request for Qualifications and to publish notice of such resolution or motion on its website or eVA. The bills provide that the Department shall report annually, for any construction management or design-build project, on the qualifications that made such project complex. Finally, the bills require the Department, with the assistance of staff of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations, to assess the implementation and administration of construction management and design-build projects and report its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly by November 1, 2029. This legislation incorporates HB 965 (Lopez).

Virginia Public Procurement Act; methods of procurement; certain construction projects. HB 1116 (Carr) allows a public body to establish purchase procedures, if adopted in writing, not requiring competitive sealed bids or competitive negotiation for single or term contracts for non-transportation-related construction projects if the aggregate or the sum of all phases is not expected to exceed $300,000. Current law places the limit at $200,000.

School Construction – Continued to 2025 and Failed

Net energy metering; solar interconnection; cost recovery. HB 117 (Sullivan) would have provided that an electric distribution company shall pay 33 cents ($0.33) per kilowatt-hour per day for the costs of lost electricity production for any and all delays beyond the regulatory notice period required by the State Corporation Commission related to net energy metering. The bill would have required that, for the purposes of net energy metering, an eligible customer-generator shall bear all reasonable costs of equipment required at the eligible customer-generator's premises for the interconnection to the supplier's electric distribution system, including commercially reasonable costs of additional controls, tests, or liability insurance. Additionally, the bill would have allowed for cost recovery by Phase I and Phase II Utilities for electric distribution grid transformation projects that support the interconnection of generating facilities using energy derived from sunlight that are owned or contracted by eligible customer-generators, subject to the Commission finding those costs to be reasonable and prudent in accordance with existing law.

Department of Education; review physical accessibility challenges in public schools; report. HB 618 (Price) would have required the Department of Education, in consultation with each school board, the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities, and such other stakeholders as it deems appropriate, to review the extent to which (i) public elementary and secondary school buildings and grounds in the Commonwealth present physical accessibility challenges and barriers for individuals with disabilities, including challenges and barriers that may prevent such individuals from fully participating in school activities; (ii) such schools have begun or plan to address and eliminate such challenges and barriers; and (iii) state agencies can assist such schools to address and eliminate such challenges and barriers and fully comply with all applicable state and federal laws. The bill would have required the Department of Education to report its findings and any associated recommendations to the Board, the Governor, the General Assembly, and each local school board no later than November 1, 2024.

Public school buildings; indoor air quality standards. HB 936 (Bolling) would have established several enumerated requirements for school boards to ensure indoor air quality in each public school building in the local school division, including (i) identifying a designated individual to oversee the establishment of and adherence to a preventive maintenance schedule for the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system in each such building and the implementation of the use of general or local exhaust ventilation in areas of each such building where housekeeping and maintenance activities involve the use of equipment or products that could reasonably be expected to result in hazardous chemical or particulate exposures, among other things; (ii) controlling microbial and fungal contamination in each such building by promptly repairing water intrusion that can promote microbial or fungal growth; (iii) ensuring indoor air quality during renovation and remodeling or new construction in various ways; and (iv) keeping school building system maintenance records. The bill also would have required the Department of Education to establish and administer a school board employee complaint and resolution process relating to indoor air quality in public school buildings.

Uniform Statewide Building Code; temporary prohibition on modifications. HB 950 (Lopez) would have provided that neither the Governor nor the Board of Housing and Community Development shall modify any regulation in the Uniform Statewide Building Code prior to the conclusion of the Commonwealth's next triennial code development process. Note that HB 950 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor. 

Virginia Public Procurement Act; construction management and design-build contracting; applicability. HB 1191 (Sickles) would have stated that design-bid-build, defined in the bill, utilizing competitive sealed bidding is the preferred method of procurement for construction services in the Commonwealth. Complex projects, defined in the bill, may request an exemption from the provisions of the bill and relevant law from the Division of Engineering and Buildings of the Department of General Services. The bill would have required all documents related to the proposed use of construction management or design-build by state public bodies and institutions of higher education and any available subcontractor opportunities to be posted on eVA. The bill would have transferred from the Department of General Services to the Division of Engineering and Buildings the authority to evaluate the proposed use of construction management or design-build by state public bodies and institutions of higher education and specifies that a local governing body must approve at a public meeting the use of construction management or design-build by a local public body. Finally, the bill would have prohibited state public bodies, institutions of higher education, and local governing bodies from considering prior construction management or design-build experience of contractors on comparable projects.

Solar-ready roofs for certain government buildings; net-zero energy consumption building design for schools. HB 1456 (Carr) would have required any executive branch agency or institution and any locality entering the design phase for the construction of a new building greater than 5,000 gross square feet in size, or the renovation of a building where the cost of the renovation exceeds 50 percent of the value of the building, to ensure that such building includes a solar-ready, cool, or energy-efficient roof, defined in the bill. The bill also would have required new public school buildings and facilities and improvements and renovations to existing public school buildings and facilities where the cost of the renovation exceeds 50 percent of the value of the building to, after notice is given to the governing body, be designed and constructed to meet net-zero energy consumption standards. The provisions of this bill only would have applied to projects entering the design phase on or after January 1, 2025.

Cash proffers; development rights. HB 1501 (Milde) would have provided that cash payments proffered pursuant to § 15.2-2298, 15.2-2303, or 15.2-2303.1 may be used for the purpose of extinguishing development rights elsewhere in the locality if the development rights to be extinguished are greater than the development rights being granted and the extinguishing of those development rights results in a perpetual conservation easement. The bill also would have provided that cash payments proffered may be used to seek matching funds from the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation and the Virginia Farmland Preservation Fund.

Solar-ready roofs for certain government buildings; net-zero energy consumption building design for schools. SB 79 (Favola) would have required any executive branch agency or institution and any locality entering the design phase for the construction of a new building greater than 5,000 gross square feet in size, or the renovation of a building where the cost of the renovation exceeds 50 percent of the value of the building, to ensure that such building includes infrastructure for renewable energy systems. The bill also would have required the Department of Energy to convene a work group to make recommendations on how to implement renovations to existing public school buildings and facilities. The provisions of this bill would have only applied to projects entering the design phase on or after January 1, 2026.

Compost and other products containing organic soil amendments infrastructure; civil penalty. SB 329 (Surovell) would have allowed a locality by ordinance to require certain generators, as defined in the bill, of large quantities of organic waste to separate the organic waste from other solid waste and ensure that the organic waste is diverted from final disposal in a refuse disposal system. The bill would have allowed a locality to establish civil penalties for violations of such ordinance but requires the locality to issue a warning to a generator that violates the ordinance prior to collecting such a civil penalty. Finally, the bill would have expressed that it is the intent of the General Assembly that new public school buildings and facilities and improvements and renovations to existing public school buildings and facilities include waste disposal infrastructure, as defined in the bill. Note that SB 329 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor.

Net energy metering; solar interconnection; cost recovery. SB 346 (Subramanyam) would have provided that an electric distribution company shall pay $1 per kilowatt per day for the costs of lost electricity production for any and all delays beyond the regulatory notice period required by State Corporation Commission related to net energy metering. The bill would have required that, for the purposes of net energy metering, an eligible customer-generator shall bear all reasonable costs of equipment required at the eligible customer-generator's side of the meter for the interconnection to the supplier's electric distribution system, including reasonable and prudent costs of additional controls, tests, or liability insurance. Additionally, the bill would have allowed for cost recovery by Phase I and Phase II Utilities for electric distribution grid transformation projects that support the interconnection of generating facilities using energy derived from sunlight that are owned or contracted by eligible customer-generators, subject to the Commission finding those costs to be reasonable and prudent in accordance with existing law. This legislation was Continued to 2025 in Senate Commerce and Labor.

Energy efficiency and climate standards; more stringent energy efficiency and climate requirements. SB 409 (Boysko) would have allowed a locality by ordinance to adopt and require compliance with stretch codes, as defined in the bill, for the construction or rehabilitation of buildings within the locality that are in addition to or more stringent than those in the Uniform Statewide Building Code, and use them as an alternative means of compliance with a locality's building requirements. The bill would have required periodic review of the codes and allowed the locality to make amendments.

Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank; established; report. SB 729 (Surovell) would have created the Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank to finance clean energy projects, greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects, and other qualified projects through the strategic deployment of public funds in the form of grants, loans, credit enhancements, and other financing mechanisms. The Bank would have been governed by a 12-member Board of Directors, consisting of nine nonlegislative citizen members and three ex officio members with voting privileges, who include the Director of the Department of Energy, the Chief Executive Officer of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority, and the State Treasurer or their designees. The bill provided that the nonlegislative citizen members are to be appointed as follows: four members by the Senate Committee on Rules, four members by the Speaker of the House of Delegates, and one member by the Governor, each of whom are required to have expertise in real estate, finance, or project development or legal expertise in zero-emission or low-emission energy generation, infrastructure, transportation, agriculture, storm water management, or housing. The bill contained provisions for (i) the appointment of a president and the hiring of staff, (ii) the powers and duties of the Bank, (iii) lending practices, (iv) a strategic plan, (v) an investment strategy, (vi) public outreach requirements, (vii) audits, (viii) exemptions from taxes and from personnel and procurement procedures, and (ix) reporting requirements. Note that SB 729 passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by the Governor.